Secrets Lay Beneath
by Boyz
Summary: They find her locked in a cell, bleeding out and potentially dying. The turtles help her recover from her physical injuries only to discover she has a strange sense of amnesia. As they aid her to find her missing past, The Shredder is silently following them, waiting for the perfect moment to steal her secrets. Who is this strange girl?
1. The Rogue Ninja

The Rogue Ninja

Another hit; this one just as hard as the last. Another groan from the girl, clenching her stomach and hunching over. She felt her knees give out and fell to the cold concrete beneath her. Her abuser wasn't satisfied with her; he knelt next to her and used a gentle touch to raise her chin. Their faces met for a moment, only for the man to gather enough strength to throw another punch; this one straight across her dirty face. Her body fell onto the concrete as the man cracked his knuckles. She laid there, in the center of cramped room, one hand holding her stomach and the other protecting her nose. A pitiful moan of agony escaped from her thin lips as a trail of blood rolled from her broken nose.

The man muttered something and delivered one last firm kick to her ribs. A spatter of blood flew from her mouth as the man drew his heavy foot away from her. "Pathetic." he determined. "Stupidly stubborn, and pathetic." He slightly shook his head in disappointment. "Nothing doing, is it? You're never going to talk." He turned around and used his key to unlock the metal cell door. He took one last look at the beaten girl as an idea appeared to him. The door was left open as he knelt next to the girl again, with a small knife in his hand.

It was easy to roll her onto her back; she still moaned and clenched her abdominal area. Her eyes were beginning to roll back and her breaths were slowing; he knew she was about to fall back into unconsciousness. The weak girl's arms held little strength as he tossed them away from her stomach. With one final blow, the man stabbed the knife downward into the left side of her stomach. Her eyes bolted awake as a stinging pain shot through her. The man stood up and walked to the door. "No more sleep; now we see how all that training in that base has prepared you. And don't die before I get back." He slammed the thick metal door shut and was gone.

"Shit, dammit," she muttered as her blood was being drained from her. With all her might, she forced herself to glance at the fresh wound in her abdomen. The knife was sticking out. She coughed a little, but it seized up to cause her to cough up blood. As the blood raised through her throat, she rolled onto her side and spit the gross black blood out. A moment of intense staring at the small puddle caused her body to shake and compelled her to curl into the fetal position, despite the burning sensation in her stomach.

Even though all she wanted was to sleep, she forced herself to stay awake. She knew falling asleep would only enrage her torturer, whom she took the liberty to calling him Mask. He always wore the same mask, metal netting over the eyes, small holes over the mouth, and a tiny red bandanna around his forehead. She didn't know when Mask would be back, but she guessed he was going to get more instruments to use on her. As blood rolled away from her body, the weak girl waited for Mask to return.

An unknown time later, she heard some type of scrapping noise from out side of her door. Figuring it was Mask, she pretended to be asleep; her plan was to let him get close to her so she could sneak on him and use the knife still in her side to attack him. For some reason, the door was taking longer to open than usual, but the girl wasn't too concerned with it. As the familiar click of the lock signaled her to shut her eyes, she heard lighter footsteps enter the cell. There were two sets, both careful and rushed. These were not Mask's.

"Don't shut the door all the way!" one rough voice whispered to the second.

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know." a lighter voice answered. There was a brief silence before the second voice said, "Holy cow! That's a girl!"

She realized they were talking about her; she was as still as she could possibly be.

"Hey Mikey, look; that must be her blood."

"Woah! There's a lot. Is-is she still alive?"

She heard footsteps approach her as she attempted to slow her heart rate. She felt a large hand near her face, probably checking for her breath. "Yeah, she's alive," the rough voice sounded surprised. "But she's knocked out cold."

"We need to get her outta here!" the one named Mikey said.

"Call the others, and tell Donnie to get some medical supplies; she's still bleeding."

"But what about the-" he never finished his thought as Mask kicked in the metal door. All three of them turned and looked at Mask; he was dragging a large bag with sharp instruments poking out.

"Oh man! Busted!" Mikey jumped back next to the other two.

"It's just one, we can take him," the one next to the girl said.

To the girl's amazement, the two voices and light footsteps belonged to two large humanoid turtle, standing on their back feet and wielding nun-chucks and some unknown daggers. The two turtles jumped and attacked Mask as the girl forced herself to back into the steel wall behind her. The three threw punches and kicks, displaying their skills in battle. The girl silently watched as the turtles were proving to be much more of a fight than she ever was. Just as her hopes of actually escaping came flooding back, Mask was able to punch away the turtle with a red bandanna out of the room; then swung his leg around and kicked the one with an orange mask. He landed next to the girl; giving Mask another horrible idea. She shuffled into a corner, away from the turtle and the approaching man.

While the second turtle was outside of the room, Mask slammed the door shut. From outside, the girl heard pounding and shouting. She couldn't identify what he was saying, instead she focused on Mask walking over to the stunned turtle. He disarmed him and held a sword against the base of the neck. He looked at the girl; she could only imagine the look in that mad man's eyes.

"Tell me everything you know, or your friend dies," the grip around the handle tightened to emphasize his seriousness. "Quickly, you're out of time."

"Hey man, ease up," the turtle joked, but that only caused the sword to get even closer to his neck.

Just then, the metal door burst open, to reveal the second turtle, along with two others. Mask looked at the new comers, which proved to be his fatal flaw. The girl sprang into action. She yanked the small knife out of her stomach while lunging forward. Before Mask could figure out what was happening, she jumped over the turtle and pushed Mask onto his back. She used the knife and stabbed in as many places as she could. He rolled her off, while holding his arm, fresh blood oozing out. The girl was still on adrenaline, so she jerked upright and faced the man who was torturing her for months. Her small hands balled into fists as she took two steps and used the last of her strength to twirl in the air and square a kick into Mask's face; causing him to slam into the wall and slide to the concrete floor.

She stood, blood dripping out and breath heavy in front of four large turtles; all surprised in her previous actions. In the middle of the room, she was barely able to stand on her own. With heavy breathing and racing heart, the girl felt some sort of protection from these creatures. None of them approach the injured girl, they just waited for her to make her next move. The girl was uncertain to do; with her eyes fixed on one of the turtles standing in the metal door frame, perhaps the one with the red bandanna, she felt her body seem to shut down all at once. Her eyes shut, her knees gave out, and her body crumpled into the arms of one of the turtles.


	2. Adjusting

As soon as her body allowed her to, the girl jolted awake. Her head whipped short strains of hair on her bruised face as she quickly examined her new surroundings. It was completely different than the cell she was used to; it was gently lit, had a side table with standard medical supplies, and an IV stuck in her arm. The room was clean and neat, displaying almost a hospital room. The cot she was laying on was much more comfortable than the concrete floor she was forced to sleep on in her cell. She pushed her upper body to sit up; as she did that, she wailed in pain. Her back fell back onto the cot as her hands gripped the stab wound on her stomach. Strangely, there was a clean bandage around her stomach.

"What the-?" she carefully felt the bandage and came to the realization that someone had stitched it up. Then she remembered her broken nose, so her right hand glided up and gently touched it. Her nose felt like it burst into flames on her face; another wail of agony. "Holy crap," she muttered just as a figure stepped into the room.

Despite all the pain she was in, her immediate reaction was to sit upright and face whoever walked in. To her surprise, it wasn't Mask; instead it was one of the turtles from before. However, she remained silent and studied his cautious movements towards her.

"You're already awake? But it's only been a few hours," he said. This one's voice was different than the two she remembered, and his head band was purple. He paused, expecting her to answer; she only replied with wide eyes and still lips. The turtle fidgeted a little, to show his uneasiness. "Okay, well my name is Donatello. My brothers, Raphael and Michelangelo, they found you."

She still didn't answer.

"Uhh, what's your name?" he took a step towards her.

Then it hit her; she didn't remember her name. Mask had never said it the entire time she was in her cell. She broke her stare to Donatello and looked off in the distance; why couldn't she remember her own name? She opened her mouth to answer, but then she shut it again. What was her name?

"I don't know," she admitted quietly.

"I didn't catch that," Donatello replied.

The girl instantly remembered her vow of silence and bit her bottom lip. Donatello noticed her clam up and decided not to push the issue.

"Hey, don't worry about it. You're safe here. My brothers and I won't let anything happen to you." Her wide eyes followed him as he walked around her cot and checked the IV. "You sucked up three of these so far; when was the last time you had water? Or food, for that matter?"

She hesitated again; she couldn't remember that either. She knew Mask would give her questionable things to eat, but actual food was a mystery.

Before Donatello looked at her for another quiet response, another creature walked into the small medical room. This one was a humanoid rat, but was shorter than Donatello and his brothers. The girl fixed her wide eyed stare at the large rat walking on his back legs; oddly enough, he was wear some sort of komoto, or a Japanese style clothing. He used a walking stick, but the girl got a feeling that he was able to use that stick in combat if need be. Long whiskers drifted off his short snout and slightly bounced as he stepped towards Donatello and the girl.

"Master Splinter," Donatello bowed his head a little as the rat walked to them.

"I thought I told you not to disturb her," Master Splinter lectured with an elder voice. "She was resting, and you woke her."

"Oh no, she was already awake! I heard her cry out in pain, so I checked on her and she-" he was beginning to ramble on an explanation, but Master Splinter held up a hand for him to be silent. He immediately ceased talking and bowed his head again.

"Leave us. I wish to speak to our guest." The girl didn't sense any hostility from Master Splinter, so she assumed that Donatello had much respect for him. Donatello remained silent and left the room. Master Splinter turned to the staring girl and gave a soft smile. "How are you feeling?"

She did not answer.

"How long were you a prisoner?" She only answered with wide eyes. "My dear, you are safe here. You may answer freely."

The girl still didn't say a word. She only answered in her head, all of which her answers were 'I don't know.'

"Do you have a name?" Another bite at her bottom lip. "Your family must be worried about you." Master Splinter studied her eyes and slowly realized that they have changed from a strong defense to a silent cry for help. Why couldn't she remember anything? "You don't remember, do you?"

She snapped out of her dazed state and gasped slightly. "How- I-" she tried to question but she wasn't entirely sure what to ask first.

"It is alright. We will help you."

When Master Splinter said he would help her, the girl nearly broke down and cried. Her eyes softened and began to tear up. She forced herself to hide her weakness by looking down and rubbing her sore arms over her eyes. A comforting hand was placed on her shoulder; she glanced up to see Master Splinter. "Do not worry, we will get to the bottom of your missing memories."

The girl toughened up enough to stop the tears from forming in her eyes. She straightened herself and carefully stepped off of the cot. Her stomach was still stinging her, but she had found something to preoccupy her mind with; hope. Master Splinter slowly pulled the IV from her arm and offered his hand to aid her in walking. While clenching her stomach, she lightly grabbed it. He led her to the door and opened it.

To her surprise, the door led to an odd family house setting. Walls made of bricks, two train cars lay in the middle of the room, a makeshift kitchen was put together, along with a living room. Small lights hung from the ceiling as lamps littered the large room with light. The girl looked around curiously as Master Splinter guided her down a few steps to a couch that was placed in front of a large flat TV. Her eyes didn't know where to wander first, the train cars? Or maybe the TV? Perhaps even stare at the refrigerator until he brought her over there for some actual food. Sitting on the couch were the first two turtles, she recognized them from their head band color. On top of the train car was another turtle, sharping a long sword. This one had a blue bandanna, so she didn't remember that one. Donatello was holding a newspaper in his hand and a pencil in the other. The girl was unaware of her surroundings, so instead of exploring or asking questions, she remained silent once again and stayed by Master Splinter.

"My sons," Master Splinter said loud enough to get all of the turtles' attention. They all stopped what they were doing and hopped over to the two. The girl tightened her grip and stomach as the turtles revealed their muscles and quick reflexes; she was becoming frightened. "My dear, these are my sons. You've already met Donatello," Master Splinter began pointing at each of his sons, "That is Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo."

"Nice to meet you!" Michelangelo gestured his hand to her, but she simply stared at it. "Uh, what was your name?" he asked after she didn't shake his hand.

"She has experienced amnesia; she doesn't remember anything." Master Splinter gave the explanation.

"Well, I guess she gets to pick her name," Raphael was the rough, New Yorker voice from the previous night. She had gotten the feeling that he had a short temper; she was smart enough to know not to piss him off.

"So, what name do you want?" Donatello asked.

She broke her gaze from everyone's eyes, and thought for a moment. The first name that came to her mind was, "Audrey."


	3. The Start of An Internet Sensation

About three weeks after their introduction, the Ninja Turtles and Audrey have made no progress to finding out her past. Donatello was constantly researching and attempting to learn all he could about Audrey's condition; which proved to be quite difficult because she rarely said anything. However, her lack of open communication didn't stop Michelangelo from trying to get her to talk. He would ask her simple "yes" or "no" questions, and was always planning little schemes and plots to get her to say anything. He once tried to scare her, by jumping out with one of Leonardo's swords; that resulted in Audrey simply staring at him, standing completely unfazed. Needless to say, Michelangelo was disappointed in her lack of expression.

Raphael was actually impressed with her performance back in her cell. Whenever it was his "turn to babysit her," he would insist that she train with him; unbeknownst to Master Splinter and his brothers. Each time was exactly the same, Raphael would side step around her, pointing his twin sai at her. Audrey would stand completely still and silently watch Raphael jab his sai at her. Eventually, he would give up and start hitting the punching bag. By that time, Audrey would preoccupy her time by watching the news.

She was introduced to April O'Neil and Casey Jones not too long after she learned all of the turtle's names. April clearly pitied Audrey and would take her out as much as she could; grocery shopping, buying a few outfits so she wouldn't have to wear over sized hand-me-downs, and sometimes took her to the park or to get a coffee in a nearby cafe. Casey was more on Raphael's side, especially after hearing what she was capable of doing in dire situations. He would occasionally pop in and try to get her to fight him as well; she simply would sigh and walk away. She wasn't unappreciative of what they were all doing for her, she just was always confused and often felt like she was hopelessly doomed to never know who she was. It often occurred to her that she was simply wasting everyone's time; so she began wandering the sewer system under Manhattan.

Audrey was exploring some of the sewers around the Ninja Turtles' home when she stepped under a man-hole cover. Little specks of sunlight peeked through as Audrey stared up at the cover. The ladder drilled into the wall looked stable enough, so she decided to venture the outside world by herself. She climbed the ladder and used all her might to push the cover away. After sneaking a look around, Audrey forced herself into the damp alley way. With one long breath, Audrey took in the scent of fresh rain and car pollution. Down the alley was a noisy street with busy people and angry drivers. No one noticed as a teenage girl slipped up from the sewers and into the walking direction of the majority of the people.

Her eyes weren't dilated so taking in the scenery was proving to be more difficult than she thought. After a moment, she glanced up at the sky and saw more dark clouds approaching. The sun kept shining as Audrey continued to walk without any actual purpose. Eventually, she found herself staring at her own reflection in the window of a closed nightclub. Her soft hair looked thin and oily, her figure was lean but held no impressive muscle, eyes that always seemed to be looking a thousand feet in front of her, and clothes that lightly hugged her features. She felt like she looked like a hot mess.

Suddenly, something caught her eye; it wasn't anything about her appearance, it was three bigger men shoving a smaller one behind a restaurant. The three men looked rough and were cracking their knuckles, while the smaller man was frightened and fumbled with his side bag. Audrey turned to watch the men shove the man completely behind the restaurant building. This disturbed her; people were walking by, not paying attention. They were so caught up in their own lives, they didn't care that someone was in dire need of help.

"Hey," she lightly called out to the busy people. No reply. "Hey, they cornered that guy," she said a bit louder. No answer. "They're going to hurt him." Still, no one saw. "They're going to kill him!" she exaggerated; only to be met with the same busy chatter of the people.

Frustrated, she stormed across the street and followed the gang of men behind the restaurant. She saw the three thugs surrounding the smaller guy, slowly getting in closer. They began with hard shoves to the shoulder; that was already too much for Audrey. Clearly not thinking, she stepped up the small gang.

"I gave you my money; what more do you want?!" the small man in the middle helplessly asked, fear was eminent in his voice.

"Any and everything," one of the tough guys replied.

"'Ey, what chu looking at?" The three thugs turned and faced Audrey, while the man in the middle was allowed to catch his breath.

"You." Audrey had a strange sense of confidence in her voice. Her shoulders rolled back and her knees became slightly bent; she knew she was getting into a fight.

"Get outta here; dis don't concern you," a different guy demanded of her. Audrey glanced at the man in the middle, he was absolutely terrified. That look of horror was enough to have Audrey stand her ground.

"It does now," she took another step to them.

The three men re-positioned themselves to almost threaten her with their stances; for some reason, she was not scared. Instead, her confidence only grew; the sense of deja vu was occurring to her, like this has happened before. While the thugs were distracted, the man in the middle used this opportunity to coward against the wall.

"Is dat so?" The thugs took a step to Audrey, still trying to scare her, but to no avail.

"Helping those who need it is my concern," she replied, dangerously close to beaming with confidence. "Especially against those who have to just numbers on their side. That's a sign of weakness. Numbers don't make you stronger."

"A'ight, I'm done with your shit," the man closest to Audrey quickly put his right hand in his baggy pants and pulled out a handgun. He immediately pointed it at her; which sparked something within Audrey's brain.

It didn't trigger all of her memories to return; just one. She had short flashbacks to many different types of guns being pointing back at her; all of which ready to fire. _She was standing in what seemed like a firing squad. Large assault rifles, small handguns, and everything in between were aiming at her. Standing just as the way she was, she heard a voice; "Ready, aim, fire!" the male voice shouted. What seemed to be a blink, Audrey realized that she was moving incredibly fast and was out-thinking the men firing the guns at her. She was hit by a few bullets, but her body was trained to withstand the pain and keep going. She made her way to the men and one by one, she kicked and punched her way through the line. Within a few minutes, all of the men were laying on the floor, unconscious. Her breathing was heavy as the first male voice called out to her, "You're making progress, it seems to be working."_

As the memory ended, Audrey carefully saw the thug squeeze the trigger; with narrow eyes, she ducked under the direct fire and allowed the inexperienced man to fire a bullet. She took a large step forward and jumped to the wall, surprisingly dodging another bullet. With momentum on her side, Audrey leaped onto the wall and bounced off. Continuing that speed, she flung her foot at the head of the man with the handgun, connecting with his ear. He fell to the ground, gun still in hand.

"Oh shit!" one of the remaining thugs exclaimed. Audrey turned to them with furious eyes. The thug without any hair lunged at her, throwing a fist at her. Audrey stepped back and leaning away from the man's fist. He missed, giving her the chance to grab his wrist and slam it into the restaurant building. He wailed in pain, but Audrey wasn't done. She used both hands to hold onto his ears and force his head downward, just as her knee was flying upward. That thug fell onto the damp ground.

The third thug was scared, but realized that he didn't want to run from the fight. He ran up to her, attempting the same thing as the second thug; by throwing a punch. He kept throwing blind punches as Audrey stepped back and dodged each one. Quickly she found an opening, she jabbed her short fingers into the man's throat to temporarily stun him. She continued to quickly jab the man in various places, such as throat, chest, under the arm, and right under the heart. As the thug staggered away, Audrey took a second to position herself to thrust one last kick in the man's chest; that one second was one too many.

Right before Audrey could preform her final kick, the thug with the gun was able to roll onto his side and shoot another bullet at Audrey; this one making contact. The bullet flew through the air and pierced her shoulder. Instead of kicking the last thug, she turned to face the gunman. He had a slight grin on his face but his eyes were weak.

"Bitch," he muttered before dropping the gun and cradling his head.

Being insulted made Audrey even more angry; so she took her rage out on Thug Number 3. She reeled in her fist then slammed it across his face. He fell to the ground. Her heart rate was racing, but her mind was crawling to keep up. To help compensate what just happened, she looked at the three men on the ground, lightly moaning in pain. As the adrenaline began to ease away, she felt warm blood ooze from her shoulder and soak her shirt.

"Damn, my shirt," she whispered; very disappointed that April spent money on that shirt, only for her to get it bloody. She glanced up, wondering where the man in the middle had went. Suddenly, she had the instinct to turn to the restaurant. The man was holding up a camera phone, with the camera facing Audrey. A little light was blinking to signal that the camera was on.


End file.
